International Day of the Girl 2013

Poverty, disempowering gender norms and the tradition of early marriage force many girls to leave school early. Project Sabala aims to address barriers to girls’ completion of secondary school education. Sabala is designed and implemented by Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT) as a partner in the STRIVE research consortium.

KHPT teams organised celebrations of the International Day of the Girl Child 2013 to draw attention to the power of education to transform girls’ futures. These events provided good visibility for Sabala, and gathered support from the local community, government and schools to promote girls’ schooling.

Celebrations were held on 5, 7 and 8 October 2013 in Bagalkot and 11 October 2013 in Bijapur, in North Karnataka, India. Priya Pillai took the first set of photographs, and Mahesh Doddomane photographed the cricket match.

To view the gallery, click on any image below and then on the arrows. Photographs (c) 2013 Priya Pillai/ KHPT or (c) 2013 Mahesh Doddomane/ KHPT.

A team discusses their skit on girls' education for a competition
A skit on the importance of girls' education
Musical chairs. Girls enjoy exercise and competition, just as boys do
Girls playing Lagori, a traditional game in Karnataka
What kind of school structure would meet girls' needs?
For these girls, volleyball is important in an ideal school
A school must include separate toilets for girls and for boys.
Climbing a tree to collect materials for their model school
The model school must be green!
Girls have turns to speak out and to listen to each other.
A celebration song
Waiting their turn to perform a traditional dance
Enjoying their schoolmates' performance
A pledge to prevent child marriage and support girls' education
Girls and boys playing cricket in mixed teams.
Action!
Schoolmates watch the match.
Girls watching ... and learning that girls can play sport too.